Flat luminous panels can appear overly bright when viewed at high angles. In order to reduce this problem, a patterned refractor or reflective louvers can be positioned along the front surface of the luminous panel. Unfortunately, these solutions are not architecturally pleasing. Another alternative is to position the luminous panel into a regressed area of the ceiling plane, thereby significantly reducing the ability to see the luminous panel at high angles.
With the luminous panel now regressed into the ceiling, some type of frame needs to be provided between luminous panel and the bottom surface of the ceiling to cover the regressed area. Options include a straight angled or flat surface, profiles emulating cove and crown molding or other similar types of molding profiles. The straight angled or flat surface is rather bland from an architectural standpoint. The cove molding and crown molding are more architecturally pleasing but their standard profiles do not work well in this type of installation. Typically, standard crown and cove molding frame profiles include curves whose tangents are parallel with the ceiling. In order to direct light onto the surface of these curves, tangents to the curve at endpoints, must intersect a portion of the luminous plane. As these luminous panels and frames are generally mounted or suspended on a ceiling, if light from the luminous panel above the frame does not intercept a portion of the curve, such a portion of the molding frame surface appears as a dark or shadowed area. When portions of the frame surface have shadows, it limits the ability to visually pick up the architectural details of the frame. Such is the case for a luminous panel positioned above the molding frame, where all of the light illuminating the profile comes from above the molding frame. Therefore, modifications need to be made to molding frames used with recessed luminous panels to ensure a sufficient amount of light emitted by the panel is intercepted by the molding frame to achieve the desired luminous gradient (transition between lighter and darker areas) across the profile of the molding frame.